Formula or not, this is great.

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2013)

I was hopeful going in from a review I read but it could have gone bad. Instead it went great. You know that the humans win - of course. Instead of making up some twisted plot you get interesting side stories, some surprise, good acting, good fights and an attempt at realism. The scientists were good for comedy without being annoying. I only recognized one actor so I saw some new people who were great, like Elba and Kikuchi. A part of the opening is how so many countries worked together but there is no message that would serve no purpose but would be heavy-handed.I didn't see any of the Transformers movies; I will make a comparison to Independence Day.